10. Micaiah
“You might run shit in your hood and in those streets, but you ain’t running shit over here, G.” –Heart of Stone, MJ Stone
“I know that these events can become tiring, but it’s important for you to tour the country for this latest release under Mike Jamison.”
“I don’t think it’ll make a difference. Shit, my sales were doing well before I started this tour.”
“And they’re going to do even better now. People are coming out because they want to see you in person.”
“You act like I wasn’t already a household name.”
“You’ve always trusted me with your career. What’s this new attitude about?” Arabella asked before she sipped her Aperol spritz.
“I just don’t understand why you’re pushing all these changes now. I don’t have time to be touring the country when I could be at home writing my next book.”
“You need to change that attitude,” she pronounced, pointing her fork at me with a strawberry speared on the end of it.
“Name one reason why.”
“These same people that you don’t want to be around are the same ones that are buying your books and making you a household name.”
“Thought you said that was you who made me a household name.”
She rolled her eyes and speared a slice of Canadian bacon from the platter between us.
“You know what I’m saying, Micaiah. What’s the problem?”
“It’s not the readers that I’m having a problem with. I’m grateful for every last one of them. It’s the fact that while you’ve got me touring all over the country, I’m leaving my little man behind. I don’t like that shit, Bell. You know that.”
“You signed up for this before you had him.”
“And you promised that growing my brand the way that you were would never get in the way of fatherhood. I don’t mind traveling and doing events, although I wasn’t keen on that in the beginning. What I didn’t count on was traveling for six months straight, doing five to six events a month.”
“I know, but when the people heard you were getting out and about, they wanted you. They’re paying for you to make these appearances, Micaiah.
Do you know how many authors would kill for the opportunity?
The majority of the authors at these events are indie authors who are paying to be there in the first place.
These hosts are not only paying for your travel, room, and food, but they’re also paying you for your presence. ”
“I get that, and I appreciate it, Bell, I do. But you can’t put a price on the time that I’m losing with my kid. I could be as broke as shit, and I wouldn’t give a damn as long as I had my li’l homie by my side. You know this.”
She sighed loudly. “I do, but you can’t have the best of everything.”
“If you’re telling me I have to choose between my son and my career, there’s no choice to be made, Bell.
I’ll do this shit without you, or I won’t do it.
Either way, I’m not doing another event for at least a few weeks.
I’m staying home with Chi,” I argued, calling my son by his nickname that was pronounced Kai.
I pushed back from my chair and stormed off the lanai and back into my house. Arabella quickly caught up with me.
“Why are you being so damn difficult?” she asked, grabbing my arm.
I snatched away from her.
“Talk to me, Micaiah. Don’t turn your fucking back on me!”
I spun around and mugged her. “Who the fuck you think you talking to like that, Bell? Ya ass might be kicking in doors and putting the fear of God in the folks you work with, but I ain’t them!”
She pressed her hands up and down in front of herself. “You’re right. Let’s calm down and talk this through.”
“Don’t manage me, Bell. I’m not in that place right now.”
“I wish I knew the place you were in so that I could reach you. I feel like we’re on two different planets right now. Why are you giving me your ass to kiss?”
“Because you’re not hearing me.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m just looking out for your career. I know that you want to be home with Malachi, and I get that. I’ll work with you to make that happen, or maybe we can take him on the road.”
“He has school, and I’m not gonna keep expecting my parents to watch him while I’m away. Him going on the road has never been an option.”
“We can easily hire a tutor.”
I shook my head and gripped the edge of the island.
“What’s this really about, Micaiah? Something else is on your mind. I know you.”
I walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottled water before I turned back to her. I unscrewed the cap and took a long swig, and Arabella waited until I finished. As much as I had wanted to tell her since I learned about it, I knew she would blow up on me.
“I may have another child on the way, and if that is true, then I want to be here in his or her life. I plan to be with the mom throughout her pregnancy and when she delivers the baby.”
Arabella’s golden-brown cheeks turned red, and the redness slowly radiated outward until her entire face was red.
Those beautiful eyes were narrowed and shooting sparks at me, and her pouty lips were puckered as though she had just sucked a lemon.
Her fingers turned red as she gripped the other side of the island, and her shoulders heaved up and down.
“You what?”
“I’m not gonna repeat myself, Arabella, because you heard me.”
“You fucked another woman and got her pregnant? You won’t even fuck me without a condom!” she exploded.
“I used a condom with her.”
“Then how the fuck did you get her pregnant?”
“It burst. How the hell else do you think I did it?”
“You fucking moron! How could you be so stupid? I guess she’s some random bitch, huh?”
“Watch your mouth, Bell.”
She grabbed apples and oranges from the large bowl in the center of the island and started throwing them at me.
“The fuck is wrong with you, girl?” I shouted and ran around the island. I snatched the last two apples from her hands and threw them across the kitchen. When she attempted to grab more, I lifted her off her feet and carried her to a wall.
I pinned her against the wall with her hands above her head. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“How could you do this to me?” She sobbed.
“Do what to you, Arabella?”
“We were talking about getting married again.”
“No, you were talking about marriage again. I told you that I’ve given up on that idea. Marriage isn’t some type of marketing tool that you use to pull the wool over people’s eyes to launch a book, Arabella.”
“I told you that it could become a great marketing technique to introduce your next series. We didn’t have to stay married.”
“You and I aren’t compatible in that form.”
“But I’m compatible enough for you to screw when it’s convenient?”
I shook my head and pointed at her. “That’s the shit I’m talking about. It was cool while it lasted, but that’s the reason I stopped screwing around with you. We’re toxic together, and you know it.”
“Whatever. You’re impossible right now.”
“You act as if I’ve betrayed you, as if we were in this relationship, and I cheated on you. We were fuck buddies, Bell, that’s it. When I was with her, I hadn’t been with you since the night of my party. It’s been six months since we were last together. You’re clearly moving in different waters.”
She wiped her tears and shrugged with her arms extended. “I told you that the men I was dating during that time was for publicity purposes and networking only.”
“That’s your problem. You see relationships as business ventures. I don’t. I need more than sex, Arabella. I need more than just a warm body and a cold heart.”
She scoffed. “Good luck with that. You need to remember that those stories you write about are just that—stories. They’re fiction, Micaiah, a broke man’s joke.”
“I’m sorry your ex-husband did a number on you, but I still have faith in my heart that my soulmate is out there somewhere.”
“You haven’t learned in three marriages that this is all it will ever be? Give it up, Micaiah!”
Her words stung, because she knew that was a sore spot for me. My first wife, Gemma, divorced me when she met a Hollywood producer who promised he would fulfill her dreams of becoming an actress; he did too. Not A-list, but he fulfilled his promise.
Arabella and I never should have been married, and we annulled it soon after it happened.
I divorced my third wife, Karen, Malachi’s mom, because of her addictions.
She became addicted to alcohol and pain pills after a car accident.
No matter how much I tried to help her, she refused it.
When Malachi was born addicted, and I learned that she was still taking it during her pregnancy and even afterward, that was the end for me.
I tried even after Malachi was born, but she placed him in jeopardy while I was away, one too many times.
“You have to get a DNA test.”
“I already know that, Bell.”
“When did it happen?”
“At the Books, Baes, and Besties conference.”
“Are you serious? You got a fucking groupie pregnant?”
“She has no idea who I am.”
“Yeah, right.” She scoffed.
“She never attended my panels, and I had a conference room to myself for my signing. She never stepped in there. She doesn’t even like mystery. None of the promotions had my picture, only my books and my logo.”
“Someone may have told her.”
“I kept up the gruff persona people have come to know me for. I smiled during the events, and in-between the events, I kept to myself. They might say hi, but that was as far as it went. When they saw the two of us together on the couple of occasions that they did, they didn’t bother me.”
“Whoever saw you during those times, I’m sure they said something. I think she knows who you are, and like some of the other skanks from your past, she’s looking for a meal ticket.”
“The woman has her own business, Bell.”
She shook her head and headed back out to the lanai. I took a few moments to calm myself down because she had pissed me off.
I returned to the lanai after a moment, and she had her phone to her ear.
“What do you know about this woman, Micaiah?”
“Aren’t you on a call? Talk to me when you finish that shit.”
“I’m on hold. What do you know about her, and what did you tell her about you?”
“She knows nothing about me, and I don’t know anything about her. It was just random sex, okay? Just a night of fucking.”
I immediately felt bad for that lie. Not because I owed Arabella anything, but because it was so much more than that to Myraj and to me.
I knew what made Myraj’s toes curl, what made her whimper, what made her moan, and what brought tears to her eyes.
I knew she loved Greek and Italian food, she watched reality shows, and her favorite colors were aqua blue and orange.
When she wasn’t at her travel agency, she loved traveling and reading.
I knew that she loved being free to explore life, and I knew how great she was in bed despite the fact that she was a virgin.
“Hello? Hey, Mac. I need an urgent request. Yes. I need a background investigation into someone. What’s her name, Micaiah?”
“Whoa. What are you doing, Bell?”
“I’m finding out everything that I can about this woman.”
“You need to slow the hell up. You’re moving too fast.”
“I’m not about to let some random woman come in and clean you out and screw up your career.”
“That won’t happen.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’m about my business, and I’m not some stupid-ass nigga. Besides, she isn’t that type of girl. End the call.” I hated getting like that with anyone, but I’d do what I needed to when I needed to.
Arabella rolled her eyes. “Mac, I’ll call you back.”
When she ended the call, she headed for the kitchen door.
“Where are you going?”
“Home. I see you need time to come to your senses.”
I watched her walk away and shook my head. I’d allowed Arabella to get too comfortable dictating certain things in my life. I never should have allowed us to blur the line between agent and client. Never again.